Varu Vasile the Vampire of Abney Park

I was enchanted by Hackney and Abney Park when I discovered it around 1988, which is when I went to live in Hackey. The park and local area always seemed magical to me. It’s a very special place. The whole of Hackney is rich with the history of rebels, revolutionaries, and dissenting characters, and I’d like to think those people are the ancestors of my fictional characters.

Let’s pop an ancient vampire into the story.

As an immigrant and most definitely a non-conformist, Varu would have been at home among the people of Hackney and Stoke Newington.

I like to think that Varu the Vampire knew the people who lived in and visited the grand houses along Stoke Newington Church Street, such as the owners and inhabitants of the magnificent manor house, Fleetwood House, and those who stayed in the Summer House, which was a building on its grounds.

In my imagination, Varu has a history with the Summer House, and it was his part-time residence.

For convenience and for underground parties, he had a ballroom and magnificent quarters for vampire guests constructed below the Summer House, and when the building was demolished in the first half of the nineteenth century, the subterranean layers were concealed and survived. Varu and his friends bought several of the local houses that were subsequently built on the site, where he housed his human servants.

He then settled permanently in Stoke Newington, spending most of his time in the grandeur and darkness below ground rather than in the dangerous modern world above.

You can see an illustration of Fleetwood House and read its interesting history right here:

https://horridhackney.com/f/the-demise-of-17th-century-fleetwood-house-1890s?blogcategory=Stoke+Newington+History

Now, luckily I can help you get a sense of the magic of Abney Park and Cemetary:

Not everyone can get to visit it, and you may have never seen a cemetery like it. So, I’m delighted to be able to share that YouTube with you.

And there is a detailed history of the residents of Stoke Newington Church Street right here, complete with a map c1848: https://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/middx/vol8/pp163-168

RAINBOW ADVENT CALENDAR 2022

Welcome to Day 3 of the Rainbow Advent Calendar!

There are 2 new stories published every day, and the stories will remain free throughout December so check in daily and

MAKE SURE YOU FOLLOW ALONG TO ENJOY ALL THE STORIES IN THE ADVENT CALENDAR!

The advent calendar brings you some wonderful holiday stories each day of the event. You can find the master list of the stories here and join the Facebook group, too.

TACKLED at the World Cup is A Steamy Gay Erotica Short by H J Perry

My contribution to the festive fun is inspired by the location of the Football World Cup.

It’s more sex than story, so it won’t be everyone’s cup of tea. Although I am sure, everyone following the rainbow will appreciate why I’ve written it this way. I’ve been banging on about the World Cup being in Qatar since forever!

Before I share my FREE short story, please allow me to mention that I have written two gay romance books that feature closeted gay footballers and secret romances.

Home Goal and My Goal by H J Perry

And as audiobooks, they’ve been narrated by Piers Ryman.

I have some audible codes to give away for those books. And if you want to buy the ebook box set, I have a discount code for that. So, keep reading for more details at the foot of this blog post.

Tackled is available for free from Smashwords, and it will be free throughout this month.

* * * MORE Christmas TREATS for YOU * * *

The 2-book ebook double bill of Home Goal and My Goal is available to buy at a discounted price right now, exclusively at the Smashwords ebook store. Use the code below at the checkout.

Promotional price: $4.19
Coupon Code: BF35Z
Expires: December 13, 2022

I have a few audible codes to give away for free ebooks. LIKE my facebook page and leave a comment there.

You can find your free copy of Tackled here.

Football with a Scottish Accent and Gay Lads

I am extremely disappointed that Wales is out of the tournament. While we are heading into the next stage of the competition, I have a tonne of footie-related gay romance books to recommend.

I can’t let any more time pass before I tell you about a whole terrific series set in Scotland, which you must add to your collection.

At the time of writing, the entire series of The Glasgow Lads by Avery Cockburn is exclusive to Amazon and free to read with a Kindle Unlimited membership. Each book can be read as a standalone.

But if you are anything like me, I have to binge read a series when I love the world and the writing style. So I recommend you start with the box-set containing the first 3 books + a bonus novella. This is the Link to it on the Amazon UK store.

I love the Scottish location (where the accents are dead sexy – The Welsh have sexy accents too, just saying). And lots of down-to-earth, normal working-class characters that I can relate to.

Now, I will have to post a few times a week to let you know about all the other good books I want to recommend before the end of 2022.

And have I got a surprise for you tomorrow? Yes! I have.

Check back because it’s the Season of Goodwill, and I want to tell you about authors who have written LGBT stories to share with you for FREE.

And I happen to know some are sports-related….. and just maybe football FIFA WORLD CUP 2022 related.

#FootballFriday #WorldCup2022

FREE LGBT Christmas Stories 2022

From the 1st of December, we will be enjoying many types of advent calendars, and fans of LGBT fiction are in for a special treat organised by author Alex Jane.

Many authors of LGBT fiction have come together to offer free stories. And each day, readers will be in for a new surprise or two.

You can follow the fun here as each story is revealed at the rate of 2 per day. And the fun will also be found on facebook.

I have contributed stories in previous years:

You can download my free Christmas In Wonderland story at Smashwords or Google Play.

This year my story is NSFW gay erotica and it has a gay footballers theme so watch the advent calendar page to find out when it is posted. And enjoy the stories from the other author authors too.

USA V ENGLAND #football

As the USA faces England in the FIFA World Cup today, it’s the perfect time to tell you about a terrific romance series that follows the same characters over several books.

Why?

Because one character is a gay British football star who leaves England to play in the USA MSL.

Needless to say being in the closet is one problem he has to face.

It comes with a warning: once you start, you will just have to keep reading the whole series through to the conclusion – I speak from experience. And I thoroughly enjoyed every minute. I got the audiobooks too and swapped between listening and reading.

Piers Ryman does an excellent job as the audiobook narrator.

You are looking for The District Line Trilogy (and it really is an emotional roller coaster) by CF White. I can’t recommend it highly enough.

Home Goal & My Goal

Two gay romance stories about top-flight footballers are available in one volume as an ebook or an audiobook narrated by Piers Ryman.

Written by H J Perry

And available to buy separately as print books.

They are terrific stories, but I would say that because I’m biased.

The audiobook is available at iTunes, Audible, and Amazon.

Here’s the link for Amazon:

Next Goal Wins

It’s Football Friday once again, and this week I want to tell you about a film that EVERYONE will enjoy. You can watch it with the whole family, and they don’t even have to like sports! It’s funny, exciting, educational, and entertaining.

Have I sold it to you yet?

Next Goal Wins is a 2014 documentary about the worst international football team in the world – ever. The filmmaker spent months with the team and their families, so it gives us a great insight into the everyday lives and opinions of people who live on the tiny Pacific island of American Samoa.

It also shows us what’s involved in the runup to the FIFA world cup for the smaller nations in the qualify rounds. It is a film about amateur football players who are used to losing every match, but so much more.

One of the players in the documentary is a non-binary “third gender” identified Faʻafafine. And it was interesting to find out a little more about that identity in this culture through the documentary.

I’ve watched this film more than once and I will watch it again, so I recommend it with confidence as a good watch right now in the run up to the Football World Cup. But if you want one more recommendation….

The incredibly talented New Zealand filmmaker, Taika Waititi (Thor, JoJo Rabbit, What We Do in the Shaddows) is making a feature film based on the documentary staring Michael Fassbender. It was expected to be out this year but now has a release date set for April 2023.

Next Goal Wins 2014 is available to stream from Amazon.

Countdown to the FIFA World Cup 2022

It’s well underway with only 128 days to go… so turning my attention back to a #lgbt #gay themed #FootballFriday, I thought we might want to remember Wonderkid, the short film released in 2016.

It’s about a #gayfootballer and the fear of #homophobia in football.

You can watch it online for free, here:

http://www.wonderkidfilm.co.uk/watch

And

Here’s a fascinating interview with the director Rhys Chapman.

12 soccer themed gay romance ebooks

These 12 titles by 12 different authors are available to download today as ebooks. Some are set in the world of professional football others are about amateur & semipro players.

Some of these are part of a series, notably those by CF White and by Avery Cockburn, both of which I can confidently recommend. Some are also available in print and as audiobooks.

This is certainly not a complete list of MM books set in the world of football.

I will bring you many more book details in future episodes of my 2022 #FootballFriday series.

We love to read gay romance among footballers is because it ticks so many boxes for us as romance readers: here are just a few:

  • forbidden love
  • secrets – we love reading about secrets
  • love conquering insurmountable objects
  • macho men falling in love

Now we need to talk about politics.

Hello?

Are you still there?

It’s fine if you want to go off, download those books, and start reading – I don’t blame you.

It’s just, the only reason I am publishing a series of LGBT-soccer-football themed blogs this year is because the FIFA world cup will take place in Qatar at the end of this year.

Qater where homosexuality is illegal with a death sentence punishment. That isn’t a small obstacle in romantic fiction. It is real and shocking.

I still remember the disappointment, and dismay when FIFA made the decision to let Qatar host this event in such a country with such laws.

Unbelievable.

Basically, I think the world knew then and saw afterward that this big football body was run by out-of-touch dinosaurs and riddled with corruption.

Don’t need to go over all that…. The details of 2015 FIFA corruption are all over the web.

Football is no longer just a sport. It is a massive business and has been for years.

All I’m saying is watch FIFA.

They have kicked Russia out of the World Cup and they have put in place support around Ukrainian football – given that football isn’t going on in their country right now.

Maybe they could do more for international footballers who have contracts with Russian teams. It’s a tricky time for everyone involved in international sports. It’s all happened so fast. Things are changing on a daily basis in relation to the war.

The FIFA World Cup is the most-watched event on TV – all around the world. It is important.

What FIFA does is important.

The Pass a gay footballer related film for #FootballFriday

I was really excited to see at last a film tackling this subject matter. The Pass was originally written as a play for the theatre and then made into a film (2016) and it helps to know that when you watch it.

As live theatre, I’m sure it worked really well. As a film, the lack of variety in the locations seems really strange – it really is still a stage show and has a very different “feel” from mainstream films for cinema or Mario, that I mentioned a few weeks ago.

If you are eager for football-related gay fiction then you should definitely see this. If you like watching theatre productions even better. A couple of other plusses: the actors are really great + they spend a lot of time half-naked. But it is not comfortable viewing and it gets very mixed reviews.

Here’s a review of The Pass.